War Tax Redirection Can Mean Redirecting Time, Not Just Money

Two things kept rattling around in my brain after I got back from the
NWTRCC conference in Birmingham last weekend.

One was Joffre
Stewart’s a capella “Oh-Ba-Ma!” song. I don’t remember
the lyrics, but only the general tone of blasphemy, in which Barack’s virgin
birth was denied, and the miracles attributed to him were cast into doubt.

“Redirection,” in which war tax resisters take all or some portion of what the
IRS
claims they owe and send the money instead to charity, is a very popular war
tax resistance tactic. Some would say “tactic” is the wrong word — it’s not
really the means to an end but is itself the end they’re aiming for: being
able to use their money to support their own idea of community needs, rather
than the Pentagon’s wasteful and immoral priorities.

But those of us who are doing tax resistance by reducing our incomes below the
income tax line can sometimes feel left out when redirection is given a big
priority, or when, as sometimes happens, those resisters who do redirect their
tax money talk as though they assume that’s what all of us do or should do.

But we don’t have an amount to redirect because our strategy has been
to reduce that amount to zero. Furthermore, because we may have had to squeeze
our budgets in order to do tax resistance this way, we may not have much left
over with which to make a big donation in April.

Hanrahan said that as she sees it, there’s more to redirect than money:

For the most part my redirection of time and personal involvement has been
possible by my choice to spend my hours in direct service and solidarity
where my heart leads me, rather than in wagework geared to bring in cash.
Currently I do literacy volunteer work, stand in solidarity with Veterans
for Peace, and with Women in Black, serve on boards and committees, and in
years past, founded and managed a homeless advocacy center. I believe that
redirection of time and presence provides a personal and potent contribution
to the common good, a gift of self that has more dimensions than money
alone. I redirect each time I give my time and energy in support of good
work within my community. It is a way to share in the work of change, my
liberation bound up in that of those I stand with, rather than perpetuating
the hierarchy of charitable giving.

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